Madonna’s Nipple-Flashing, Gun-Waving MDNA World Tour Cashes In

Madge has 2012's highest grossing tour

Madonna’s massive, controversy-skirting MDNA tour has paid off: the Material Girl raked in $228 million from the live shows, making her muscular jaunt around the world the year’s highest grossing tour, Billboard reports. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band were a somewhat distant second, claiming a total of $199 million after playing to a little more than two million people. The rest of the top five: Roger Waters at $186 million; Cirque Du Soleil’s “Michael Jackson: THE IMMORTAL World Tour” with $147 million; and Coldplay, clocking $147 million. Out of those elite five, only Waters placed on last year’s list — the founding member of Pink Floyd filed close to $150 million as 2011’s tour revenue.